War of words over Grangemouth jobs fears

Roy Beers

A political row has erupted over yesterday’s reports that around 350 Doosan Babcock jobs are to be lost in Grangemouth and in Lanarkshire.

While the firm has not commented on the situation this weekend, economy secretary Keith Brown - who had sought an urgent meeting with management - has challenged the version of events given by Labour’s Scottish leader, Richard Leonard.

On Twitter Mr Brown wrote: “Having spoken to Doosan Babcock, I’m advised that around 300 of the 350 jobs R Leonard claims face redundancy have not yet even been recruited for.

“These are service related contract jobs for work starting later this year.

“DB advise this claim is ‘unsettling and disappointing’.

Yesterday Mr Leonard attacked the SNP Government over the apparent redundancy threat to hundreds of workers, commenting: “The Scottish Government needs to intervene immediately to support all those highly skilled people facing redundancy, and work with the trades unions involved to avert these job cuts.